Free Joan Hess - Arly Hanks 09 by Miracles in Maggody Page A

Malachi Hope fellow.”
    She tried to keep her chin from quivering, but it was a lost cause. Her eyes were stinging and her throat was so tight she could hardly swallow back the bitter taste in her mouth. “We can’t let this happen. I tried to talk to Arly, but she wouldn’t listen to a word I said. She was—she was downright flippant, if you must know.” She opened her purse and pulled out a lacy white handkerchief to dab her nose. “I don’t know what to do, Brother Verber.” He was so touched by this unprecedented display of vulnerability that he allowed his hand to move to her thigh and squeeze her supple flesh. “Don’t you worry about this, Sister Barbara. I have a plan—and a real fine one, if I do say so myself. When you showed up a few minutes ago, I was just running through the details to make sure I hadn’t overlooked anything. Why, a week from now we’ll look back at this and laugh ourselves sick at the way we was all worried.”
    “What’s your plan?” she said, sniffling into the handkerchief.
    “I can’t tell you until I’ve prayed to the Lord for approval. Sister Barbara, why don’t we both git down on our knees and thank the Lord for sending me a plan to save our little town?”
    “If the Lord sent the plan, why do you need his approval?”
    Brother Verber clasped his hands together and slid to the floor. “The Lord moves in mysterious ways,” he murmured as he started praying more fervently than he had since he’d been asked to explain in front of most everybody in town why he owned a life-size inflatable doll named Suzie Squeezums.
    This was a true test of faith.

5
    “You’ll never guess what Lydia Twayblade told me,” Elsie McMay said as she reached for another slice of pound cake. She and Mrs. Jim Bob were sitting out on the sunporch, where they could admire the results of the latter’s undeniable gardening prowess. The impatiens in particular were thriving along the wall at the back of the yard. Elsie was a mite jealous, having never had much luck with impatiens.
    Mrs. Jim Bob was looking in the same general direction, but she was thinking of neither the flowers nor the challenge submitted to her. The last two days Jim Bob had flat out refused to discuss the pending sale and stayed down at the SuperSaver from dawn until well after midnight. Brother Verber kept insisting he had a plan, but he was vague when it came to offering any hints. She had debated trying to talk some sense into Burdock Grapper and had gone so far as to drive out to his house, before she lost her resolve and kept on going until she ended up in Hasty.
    “You know who Lydia Twayblade is, don’t you?” Elsie said to prompt her hostess.
    “I just find it hard to believe she said something of interest, Elsie. She is one of the most tiresome women in town, all the time acting high and mighty when she’s nothing but a glorified nurse’s aide out at the county home. It’s no wonder the undertaker goes out there once a week; Lydia bores the old folks to death.”
    “Lydia told me that a woman turned up out there yesterday afternoon and said she was Seraphina Hope. Before Lydia could stop her, she was out on the porch inviting all the old folks to come to the revival.”
    “That hussy!” gasped Mrs. Jim Bob.
    Elsie took a sip of tea. “Lydia said Seraphina was real sweet and lingered more than an hour asking the residents about their health and their families. She even sang for them. Ol’ Petrol Buchanon got so excited his teeth fell on the floor right next to her foot. She just laughed and handed them back to him. Petrol is Diesel’s youngest brother, or so I seem to think. He’s eighty if he’s a day, of course.”
    “May I assume Lydia Twayblade has enough decency not to allow the old folks to be carted out to some tent and made to sit for hours and hours on a hard bench?”
    “Seraphina promised that they would all be settled in comfortable wheelchairs so they wouldn’t get tuckered out by